Would bill allow hunting on Gettysburg battlefield?

Group says clerical oversight could permit hunters around the monuments.

Could you imagine shotguns blasting around the Pennsylvania State Memorial?

Or how about a turkey hunt on Culp's Hill?

Well, conservationists are saying that a legislative oversight could allow public hunting on nearly 6,000 acres of the Gettysburg battlefield.

A bill intended to preserve hunting access to national forests and other federal land like that administered by the Bureau of Land Management was written too broadly and could open the door for shooting at popular tourist destinations like Gettysburg, according to Kristen Brengel, a legislative director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

"It seems like one giant misunderstanding," she said. "They wrote it so poorly that it includes most of the National Park system. I hope people realize the absurdity of not excluding shooting at a place like the Liberty Bell."

Known as the "Sportsmen's Heritage Act," the bill permits recreational hunting, fishing and shooting on federal public lands, excluding those officially designated as a "national park" or "national monument."

The problem, Brengel says, is that these exemptions include only a few National Park sites.

The National Parks are classified under a system of legal designations that frequently confuses outsiders. There are more than a dozen designations, ranging from "national seashores" to "national parkways.

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The Gettysburg National Military Park is designated a "national battlefield" and the Eisenhower National Historic Site is designated as a "national historic site." Neither fall under the "national park" or "national monument" designations, which are specifically excluded in the act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

"The problem is this bill is all inclusive," Brengel said. "I think people on the House floor sometimes get caught up in the moment. This bill came up rather quickly and maybe they didn't do their homework."

But language in the bill is interpreted differently by staff of U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who sponsored the legislation. His staff says the "Sportsmen's Heritage Act" would not require Gettysburg National Military Park to permit recreational hunting. Instead, the superintendent at individual units in the National Park System would be able to administratively exclude hunters.

Gettysburg National Military Park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon declined to comment on the act. She said park officials, as a matter of policy, don't comment on pending legislation unless asked to testify before Congress.

But the National Parks Conservation Association says wording in the legislation is ambiguous at best.

And at least one lawmaker has already attempted, and failed, to clarify the language.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., sought to include exemptions for all National Park units in what his staff called a "common-sense technical clarification."

The amendment was defeated.

Brengel said opposing lawmakers spoke about the popularity of Civil War re-enactments held on national battlefields as one of the reasons not to include a Gettysburg exemption.

"Anyone who is familiar with park units that allow these types of re-enactments knows there are no bullets in these guns, no cannon balls in these cannons," she said. "It could be very well that these (lawmakers) don't understand what the Park Service does."

In fact, battle re-enactments aren't allowed on the Gettysburg Battlefield, though some demonstrations featuring the firing of blank weapons are allowed as part of certain "living history" demonstrations.

The legislation is expected to be considered this week by the U.S. Senate.

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The "Sportsmen's Heritage Act" would open up federal public lands to hunting, fishing and shooting. That act has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is expected to be considered this week by the Senate. The bill, H.R. 4089: Sportsmen's Heritage Act of 2012, can be viewed at www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/.